Hi! Welcome to my 20th weekly diary already! Time flies and I hope you still enjoy reading these diaries. The past week I recycled some things, celebrated Sinterklaas and watched 4 World Championship handball matches. Want to read along?
Thursday
Overslept! Shit! My alarm didn’t rang. I did make it out on time I just didn’t have breakfast. In the train I received great news, I passed all my tests. I am soooo happy with that. Such a freeing feeling, no resits. Eventually I did buy some breakfast at the station in Deventer. Obviously this resulted in a lot of plastic. Bummer. I bought a buddha bowl with veggies and a falafel and hummus wrap. Delicious, but I hate the waste. Since I didn’t take my own cutlery with me I also had to grap those. I was home quite early again and at night I went to handball training.
Vrijdag
Time to do the finishing touches on the crafting I did for Sinterklaas. This means I had to make some poems and buy the last gifts. The crafting itself was done already. I bought a pan, a tea towel, oven gloves and peanut butter. I packed everything in old newspapers to reuse some waste. A fancy ribbon around it and tadaaa. Wrapping paper is a waste if you ask me, it is used once and then thrown away. At night I watched The Voice of Holland. I don’t follow the show but I always do like watching the blind auditions.
Saturday
Today was the day, Sinterklaas! I did a morning shift till noon at work and then we went to family in Haarlem. It was a lot of fun! Meanwhile the Dutch handball woman played their first match for the World Championship and so I peaked here and there. They lost the game to South Korea and it was a big bummer. About the gifts: I tried to save most of the packing paper so that I can reuse it again. Eventually I received reusable chopsticks, an insect hotel, a vegan chocolate bar, organic seeds for in my vegetable garden and pepernoten (a Dutch snack we usually use around Sinterklaas). The chopsticks are perfect to bring with me along with my reusable cutlery!
Sunday
Today I had another handball match in Enschede and so I got up early. It is quite a ride from my family in Haarlem to Enschede. Partly by train, partly by car. I had hoped to bring good news this time, but we lost again. The Dutch handball team had to play a game against Germany too and I hoped they would win. And they did! Handball isn’t displayed a lot on tv and so I am delighted with these games.
Monday
Since I had school quite late today, I had some times to take out the trash. I will go through it to give you an insight on what waste I have at this point. My trash can is divided into two parts: paper and plastic. Today I want to talk about the plastic waste, which you can see below. First the hanger. When I still shopped fast fashion I got a lot of these and so I’m still using them. This one unfortunately broke. When I buy new ones I avoid plastic. The plastic flower is one I got for valentine’s day once and since I’m minimizing it’s going out. You also see three cards. One is for the bicycle storage at the station, the other two are from the het Sziget festival. You needed the cards to pay for drinks. I don’t use any of the cards any longer. The concealer is going away and I wrote a post about the low plastic waste concealer I bought in return. You also see a blade from my safety razor. It’s the lowest shaving waste you can have (aluminium also goes with the plastic waste in our municipal). The small thingy you see on the left above the blade is the plastic where I received the blades of the safety razor in. I am searching for a brand who supplies them plastic free. There’s also a round thing next to the concealer, a button who let loose from my bracelet. There’s another white round thing, from an empty roll of tape. If I finish all the tape I have I will switch to paper tape. And also, the wrist band I received when volunteered at Mysteryland. I’m recycling it all. All learning points! I have things to improve but I think this is quite all right for now. Beside the waste I also got rid of two other things in my room. A DVD-holder I had hanging on the wall. I almost sold all my DVD’s. And I am also getting rid of a cotton storage thingy. I need less storage supplies since I’ve been decluttering. When you need to buy stuff to store your stuff, you probably have too much stuff.
Tuesday
First school, then work. I felt quite rested! The getting to bed early is working. I also see my skin getting better at the same time. I am happy with it, but I wonder where it comes from. Maybe it’s because I eat vegan now, I read that dairy can cause skin problems. I hope that’s the case for me too because I am never going back to eating dairy again. I had to work today as well and so I missed a match from the World Championship handball. The Netherlands played against Cameroon. After work I watched it and they won!
Wednesday
On Wednesdays the time it takes me to get to school is longer than I am actually at school often. After school I went to the aunt of my grandma (my great-aunt? I don’t know). It’s always much fun! She’s almost 100 years old and it makes me see that it is possible to have a long and happy life. Maybe I’ll get to that age one day too. Older people always get so happy because of little things and I love that. I should too. After that there was another handball game. The Netherlands against Serbia. It eventually ended in a tie, 27-27. Pff, it was so tense! Ah, and a fun fact! My while outfit was thrifted today. My closet is getting where I want it to be!
Yours sincerely,
Romee
leukleuk!